Various Graphic Arts camera systems are known wherein copy, such as a newspaper page paste-up, is photographed, and the resultant exposed sheet photosenstive material is then appropriately processed to produce an image-bearing sheet which is used in the preparation of printing plates. Efforts have been made to mechanize or automatize such systems to reduce the need for supervisory personnel by, for example, causing the sheet of image-bearing material to be fed directly from the camera into an automatic film processor, as is shown, for example, in Atkinson U.S. Pat. No. 3,335,636. Such arrangements tend to become mechanically complex, however, and may dedicate the processor to the associated camera making it unavailable for other film processing applications whereby, as a result, the overall system is comparatively expensive and wasteful of space.
The present invention, recognizing these problems of prior art approaches, is concerned with an automatic camera/processor system wherein an exposed sheet of film is fed, by means of conveyors disposed inside a darkroom enclosure, directly into the input rollers of an automatic film processor which projects into said darkroom enclosure, the darkroom enclosure being sufficiently large to receive an operator who thereby can gain access to the input feed tray of the processor when it is desired to use the processor for the processing of other image-bearing sheets of material exposed, for example, in a completely different camera system. By this arrangement, the overall system achieves far greater versatility than has been possible heretofore. The film processor is, as desired, part of an automatic film exposure and processing system; the operator can, if necessary, transfer exposed sheets of film from the camera to the processor manually if any difficulty or jam should be encountered in the conveyor system; and the processor is available to the operator for use in processing sheets of film exposed at other locations.
In an arrangement of the general type described, it is sometimes desirable to expose a sheet of film through its base, i.e., with the emulsion side of the film facing away from the copyboard. When a sheet of film so exposed is then fed by the conveyor system into the film processor, the emulsion side will be facing downward at the input rollers of the processor. However certain processors require that film sheets to be processed be fed into the processor with the emulsion side facing upward, and this further requirement necessitates that the exposed film sheet be turned over subsequent to its exposure and prior to delivery to the film processor. While such a turnover could be effected manually, this would militate against the desired automaticity of the overall system. The present invention, recognizing this further problem which may be encountered under the specified circumstances, i.e., exposure through the base of the film in conjunction with the use of a film processor which requires the film to be fed emulsion side up, therefore incorporates a film turnover mechanism which forms a portion of the automatic transport system and which assures that all film can be exposed as desired and also delivered to the film processor as may be necessary under the existing circumstances.
Various sheet turnover mechanisms have been suggested heretofore. Such mechanisms are described, for example, in British Pat. No. 784,790 and in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,337,031, 1,813,476, 2,901,246, 3,416,791, 3,646,325, and 3,742,847. These prior inverters have not been employed to invert an emulsion-bearing sheet of sensitized film material and, in general, are unsuitable for such applications since the types of mechanism employed might tend to scratch a sheet of film. Moreover, such prior art inverters are normally adapted to handle a sheet of predetermined maximum length whereas, in the system of the present invention, the actual length of sheet to be inverted may be variable or indeterminate, thereby again making the prior art mechansims unsuitable for use in the present invention.
The present invention obviates these problems of the prior art in an automatic camera/processor system of the general type described previously, by incorporating a film turnover mechanism which is adapted to receive and invert sheets of sensitized material without cosmetically marking such sheets and without being length-dependent.